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<font size="5"><center>Muslims outraged over cartoons</font size></center>
French newspaper fires editor
Ahmed Jadallah, Reuters
Controversial cartoons of Prophet Muhammad led to an armed gunmen surrounding the French cultural centre's headquarters in Gaza Strip
By Sebastian Rotella
Los Angeles Times
Paris (Feb 3, 2006)
A fierce international debate between Western democratic values against religious sensitivities escalated yesterday as Muslims reacted angrily to wider publication of controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Originally published by a Danish newspaper in September, the caricatures appeared recently in newspapers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and even Jordan.
Muslims, who believe any depiction of God and the prophets is blasphemy, are outraged at drawings of Muhammad with a bomb as a turban, among others.
One cartoon shows Muhammad standing on a cloud as he tells a group of suicide bombers that paradise has run out of the virgins that are said to await martyrs upon their death.
Conflict heated up on multiple fronts yesterday. In the Gaza Strip, masked Palestinian gunmen fired weapons into the air as they surrounded an office of the European Union and a French cultural centre. Two Palestinian militant groups had threatened to retaliate against the offending publications by kidnapping European citizens and targeting churches and European offices.
In Paris, the France Soir tabloid abruptly fired its managing editor for reprinting the caricatures in Wednesday's edition, whose cover carried the paper's own cartoon of Muhammad alongside Christian, Jewish and Buddhist holy figures. "Don't complain, Muhammad, we're all being caricatured here," the Christian God says.
Tunisia and Morocco banned the sale of France Soir.
Editorialists, political leaders and advocates of media freedom said that a Muslim backlash that has included boycotts, death threats and flag-burnings jeopardizes democratic rights.
"The reaction in Muslim countries shocks me because it confirms the weight that radical Islam has acquired," said Patrick Chappatte, a cartoonist quoted in Le Temps newspaper in Switzerland. "A real totalitarianism is at work in the world and (it) wants to impose its views not only on Arab Muslims, but on the West. The same way that they veil women, Islamic radicals want to veil cartoons in the press."
But Muslim leaders accused European media of provoking strife by humiliating Islam. "Freedom of expression cannot be the freedom to lie," said Dalil Boubakeur, the imam of the Mosque of Paris and president of the French Muslim Council. "The prophet did not found a terrorist religion, but on the contrary a religion of peace."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the furor exacerbated religious tension.
"Any insult to the Holy Prophet -- Peace Be Upon Him -- is an insult to more than a billion Muslims," Karzai said in a statement.
Western leaders responded gingerly. They were mindful that the explosive issue could unleash violence reminiscent of the assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was killed in 2004 by a Dutch Muslim extremist angered over his depictions of Islam.
Some political figures called for restraint on the part of the media. The press has to "deal with what it has gotten into," said German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations said the press must respect religion.
Annan "is concerned over the controversy that has been created by the publication of the Danish cartoons," said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. "He believes that the freedom of the press should always be exercised in a way that fully respects the religious beliefs and tenets of all religions."
But many European leaders said that democratic principles outweighed the risk of offending religious sensitivities.
"We must defend freedom of expression," said French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. "And if I had to choose, I prefer the excess of caricature over the excess of censure."
Sarkozy said he was surprised by the firing of the managing editor of France Soir, Jacques LeFranc. The firing was ordered by the newspaper's owner, an Egyptian-born Catholic named Raymond Lakah, and announced in a news release along with an apology "to the Muslim community and anyone who was shocked or angered."
In contrast, yesterday's edition of France Soir devoted its front pages to a feisty defence of its earlier publication of the caricatures. The cover showed a photo of bearded Muslim men burning a Danish flag. The headline alluded to a renowned 18th-century author who mocked religious and political hypocrisy: "Help Us Voltaire: They Have Gone Mad!"
The fired editor warned that he would fight his dismissal. Le Monde, the influential French daily, published an editorial yesterday asserting that French law permits religions to be "freely analysed, criticized and even subjected to ridicule."
Accusations of intolerance on both sides demonstrate once again Europe's difficulties absorbing a fast-growing Muslim community that is experiencing a surge of fundamentalism and struggling with alienation and discrimination.
The case also shows profound differences regarding the relationship among the state, religion and the media. Arab leaders have demanded that European governments sanction the journalists they regard as blasphemers. Leaders in Denmark and other countries say that censorship is unacceptable and insisted they cannot be held responsible for what appears in the media.
The 12 caricatures were first published in the daily Jyllands-Posten newspaper in September, leading to months of wrangling between the Danish and Arab governments. The editors of the newspaper have said they are sorry if anyone was offended, but defend the publication of the images.
Yesterday, Danish Prime Minister Andres Fogh Rasmussen told an Arab television network that he had summoned foreign diplomats to a meeting today aimed at calming tensions.
"We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work," Rasmussen said.
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NA...7&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1014656511815
<font size="5"><center>Muslims outraged over cartoons</font size></center>
French newspaper fires editor
Ahmed Jadallah, Reuters
Controversial cartoons of Prophet Muhammad led to an armed gunmen surrounding the French cultural centre's headquarters in Gaza Strip
By Sebastian Rotella
Los Angeles Times
Paris (Feb 3, 2006)
A fierce international debate between Western democratic values against religious sensitivities escalated yesterday as Muslims reacted angrily to wider publication of controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Originally published by a Danish newspaper in September, the caricatures appeared recently in newspapers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and even Jordan.
Muslims, who believe any depiction of God and the prophets is blasphemy, are outraged at drawings of Muhammad with a bomb as a turban, among others.
One cartoon shows Muhammad standing on a cloud as he tells a group of suicide bombers that paradise has run out of the virgins that are said to await martyrs upon their death.
Conflict heated up on multiple fronts yesterday. In the Gaza Strip, masked Palestinian gunmen fired weapons into the air as they surrounded an office of the European Union and a French cultural centre. Two Palestinian militant groups had threatened to retaliate against the offending publications by kidnapping European citizens and targeting churches and European offices.
In Paris, the France Soir tabloid abruptly fired its managing editor for reprinting the caricatures in Wednesday's edition, whose cover carried the paper's own cartoon of Muhammad alongside Christian, Jewish and Buddhist holy figures. "Don't complain, Muhammad, we're all being caricatured here," the Christian God says.
Tunisia and Morocco banned the sale of France Soir.
Editorialists, political leaders and advocates of media freedom said that a Muslim backlash that has included boycotts, death threats and flag-burnings jeopardizes democratic rights.
"The reaction in Muslim countries shocks me because it confirms the weight that radical Islam has acquired," said Patrick Chappatte, a cartoonist quoted in Le Temps newspaper in Switzerland. "A real totalitarianism is at work in the world and (it) wants to impose its views not only on Arab Muslims, but on the West. The same way that they veil women, Islamic radicals want to veil cartoons in the press."
But Muslim leaders accused European media of provoking strife by humiliating Islam. "Freedom of expression cannot be the freedom to lie," said Dalil Boubakeur, the imam of the Mosque of Paris and president of the French Muslim Council. "The prophet did not found a terrorist religion, but on the contrary a religion of peace."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the furor exacerbated religious tension.
"Any insult to the Holy Prophet -- Peace Be Upon Him -- is an insult to more than a billion Muslims," Karzai said in a statement.
Western leaders responded gingerly. They were mindful that the explosive issue could unleash violence reminiscent of the assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was killed in 2004 by a Dutch Muslim extremist angered over his depictions of Islam.
Some political figures called for restraint on the part of the media. The press has to "deal with what it has gotten into," said German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations said the press must respect religion.
Annan "is concerned over the controversy that has been created by the publication of the Danish cartoons," said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. "He believes that the freedom of the press should always be exercised in a way that fully respects the religious beliefs and tenets of all religions."
But many European leaders said that democratic principles outweighed the risk of offending religious sensitivities.
"We must defend freedom of expression," said French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. "And if I had to choose, I prefer the excess of caricature over the excess of censure."
Sarkozy said he was surprised by the firing of the managing editor of France Soir, Jacques LeFranc. The firing was ordered by the newspaper's owner, an Egyptian-born Catholic named Raymond Lakah, and announced in a news release along with an apology "to the Muslim community and anyone who was shocked or angered."
In contrast, yesterday's edition of France Soir devoted its front pages to a feisty defence of its earlier publication of the caricatures. The cover showed a photo of bearded Muslim men burning a Danish flag. The headline alluded to a renowned 18th-century author who mocked religious and political hypocrisy: "Help Us Voltaire: They Have Gone Mad!"
The fired editor warned that he would fight his dismissal. Le Monde, the influential French daily, published an editorial yesterday asserting that French law permits religions to be "freely analysed, criticized and even subjected to ridicule."
Accusations of intolerance on both sides demonstrate once again Europe's difficulties absorbing a fast-growing Muslim community that is experiencing a surge of fundamentalism and struggling with alienation and discrimination.
The case also shows profound differences regarding the relationship among the state, religion and the media. Arab leaders have demanded that European governments sanction the journalists they regard as blasphemers. Leaders in Denmark and other countries say that censorship is unacceptable and insisted they cannot be held responsible for what appears in the media.
The 12 caricatures were first published in the daily Jyllands-Posten newspaper in September, leading to months of wrangling between the Danish and Arab governments. The editors of the newspaper have said they are sorry if anyone was offended, but defend the publication of the images.
Yesterday, Danish Prime Minister Andres Fogh Rasmussen told an Arab television network that he had summoned foreign diplomats to a meeting today aimed at calming tensions.
"We are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work," Rasmussen said.
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NA...7&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1014656511815
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